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Instead of answering, she leaned forward and entered the address on my phone. It wasn’t too far away. We made our way there quietly. The baby fell asleep despite the strong tension in the car.
I frowned as we approached the dingy apartment complex. “You live here?”
“Yes.” Her tone was defensive. “It might not be much, but it was all I could afford at the time.”
“Hmm,” I responded as we got out of the car and headed to the door. She struggled to open the door while carrying a baby in one hand, so I reached over and plucked my son out of her hand.
She turned to me in alarm, and I raised my eyebrow, daring her to say anything about it. She pressed her lips together in disapproval but went on to unlock the door. Then, she reached out for him again once she had. Suppressing the pettiness inside that demanded I ignore her, I handed him back to her.
The inside of the apartment was neat but sparse and rundown. I analyzed the smoke detector on the ceiling, noting a lack of light that signified it wasn’t working. As I walked into the kitchen, I also noticed there was a small line of white at the bottom wall near the fridge that had all the markings of mold.
“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” I said. “There is no way you and my son are living here.”
I turned to look at her, and her shoulders were drawn back defensively. “I did my best, okay? I treated the mold and did whatever I could to make sure it was at least liveable.”
“My son is not living here anymore.”
“Your son doesn’t have a choice, and neither do you.”
Oh yes, I do,I thought, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t necessarily want to antagonize her any more than she already was in case she got it into her mind to run away again. Besides, as frustrated as I was at what she did, I understood why she did it, and some part of me respected her for trying to keep my son safe.
But I was here now, and whether she liked it or not, keeping them safe was my job from here on out.
Of course, I wasn’t going to tell her that. I didn’t want to give her any heads-up, so I simply kept quiet, already formulating a plan in my head.
What most people didn’t realize was that after getting out of the Marines, I slowly saved up my money and also invested in order to build up some wealth for myself. I was in no way a billionaire like Vinny and Santiago, but I did okay and could live the rest of my life without having to work. I only worked because it helped me keep my mind off the nightmares, not necessarily because I had to, and I never touched any of the money because I hadn’t needed it.
But now I did because I was going to take care of Kayla and my son.
“This place is in a good neighborhood,” Kayla continued in the same defensive tone. “And the landlady is nice. She hasn’t evicted us yet even though I owe her several months of rent.”
That did not placate me.
“Then we’ll give her back whatever you owe her, but under no circumstances are you going to live here anymore,” I said, changing my mind about not antagonizing her. Her eyes looked really pretty when they were flashing with annoyance anyway.
Kayla rolled her eyes and walked over to a tiny bedroom, placing the baby’s dozing form in a crib. He immediately let out a cry, and she lifted him again. Then, she sighed and turned to me. “Okay, listen. Just because you’re Hunter’s father does not give you the right to boss me around.”
“Hunter?” I swallowed the name, cementing it in. “That’s his name?”
She nodded, still holding the child who had been fussing. He was drifting off once more to sleep, and I walked toward them, staring down at him in awe.
It was finally hitting me that I had a baby—a son. Damn. That was insane.
The boy looked like me, although ten times more adorable. His hand moved up as if swatting a fly, and he smacked his lips a few times before the hand curled into his cheek. I wasn’t typically a poetic kind of guy, but I felt like Cupid had sat on his little shoulder and shot an arrow right into my heart.
I loved the little guy already, and I would die for him. Possibly even kill for him.
I reached out and ran a finger down his soft cheek. He turned his face to it and opened his mouth as though searching for the digit.
“His gums are red,” I commented.
“Yeah,” Kayla sighed heavily. “He’s supposed to be over the teething phase, but according to the doctor, he’s not quite done with it yet. It’s been kind of hard on him, but he’s taking it like a champ.”
“And I’m guessing you don’t get a lot of sleep,” I said. Now I knew why she had looked so exhausted when I’d seen her.
“No, I don’t,” she admitted. “But you know what’s crazy? Most of the time, I don’t even care. It doesn’t even occur to me that I’m tired until I think about it, and even if it did, I wouldn’t change a thing. I would do anything to keep him safe. Anything.”
I saw the same protectiveness, the same possession on her face that I felt when I looked at him. My respect for her went up several folds. And so did my attraction.
